"Twitter and Fake News"

FADE IN:

In the KVCC studio, Candice Bergeron and Colton Wyatt place cue cards on top of the round table they are seated at as the lights come up. A cup of coffee, with two unopened packs of sugar, two creamers, and a spoon sits in front of Candice. A tall glass of iced tea in front of Colton. A tray of uneaten Danish is found in between. The studio audience quiets as the camera rolls.

CANDICE
Welcome to Cracker Croakers for Monday, January 28, 2019. I'm Candice Bergeron, your hostess with the mostest.

COLTON
And, I'm your other host, Colton Wyatt. Today's edition of Cracker Croakers comes straight from the you've-got-to-be-bullshi.....me category.

CANDICE:
Whoa! Calm down, Colton. Remember this is a family show so we have to keep our language clean. It's been a long time since I've seen the Irish side of your temper flare. But, believe me. I agree one hundred percent with you about this one.

COLTON:
Some news reporters would not know the truth if it walked up and slapped them squarely across the face. Take for instance this juicy tidbit that claims, are you ready for this? Older people, over the age of 65, spread the vast majority of fake news. My a..!

CANDICE:
At least that is the recent report from a certain Northeastern University political and computer science professor named David Lazer, the co-author of a recent study published in the Science journal supposedly regarding Twitter users. Unlike much of what comes out of Russia, Macedonia, and Romania, the three leading countries where most fake news tends to originate from, we ain't making this stuff up, folks.

COLTON:
David Lazer is fairly well known in the academic world. He devotes much of his efforts to computational social science. This field of study uses computers to model, simulate, and analyze social phenomena. According to Lazer, 99 percent of Twitter users spread virtually no fake information in the most heated part of the 2016 election year. And, platypuses fly too! But, only on days that end in the letter "y".

CANDICE:
According to Lazer's report, obviously in my opinion any way, as slanted as it is, there were only 16 Twitter accounts who tweeted out nearly 80 percent of the misinformation masquerading as news during this time. Folks, do you understand that number and what it implies?

COLTON:
I sure do. And-a, I wasn't born yesterday. Nor do I fall for everything I read. Here is a direct quote from David Lazer himself, "Spreading fake information is taking place in a very seamy, but small, corner of Twitter."

CANDICE:
Perhaps David Lazer should reexamine his information, and this time report it correctly. I really wish we had Lazer here at the round table with us to explain how he deduced his results.

COLTON:
Lazer also states misinformation super sharers flooded Twitter an average of 308 pieces of fakery each between August 1 and December 6 in 2016. If that isn't a crock of horse dung you tell me what is!

CANDICE:
Can somebody please clue me in on where Lazer dreamed these numbers up from?

COLTON:
Lazer also states the vast majority of people are exposed to very little fake news despite the fact that there's a concerted effort to push it into the system.

CANDICE:
Yea, perhaps by people the likes of David Lazer and his type of reporting?

COLTON:
According to this Science journal study, there were 16,442 accounts analyzed with a random pool of voter records that matched names to Twitter users. Certain accounts were then subsequently screened out.

CANDICE:
I wonder why? That in itself should inform our audience how biased this study was.

COLTON:
Lazer did not bother to interview any of the study's participants. He simply ranked them based on what he read on Twitter.

CANDICE:
The Head of the Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found several problems with Lazer's study, particularly how he determined fake information sites.

COLTON:
For instance, those accounts Lazer categorized as left-leaning or centrists, according to him only spread five percent of fake information. While on the other hand, for those Lazer found to be right-leaning the number rose to eleven percent. And, for those on the extreme right, that number increased to 21 percent.

CANDICE:
Add those numbers up and in every math book in the United States they equal 42 percent. So, tell us Mister Lazer, if you possible can, where the other 58 percent of fake news on Twitter your report failed to attribute to any of your control groups are hidden at? Or perhaps they just magically and mysteriously went bye-bye?

COLTON:
Summing up a comment from a Texas A&M University historian of political rhetoric, and one I completely support by the way, this study once again indicates, as I discussed at length in a previous edition of our show, there are those reporters who are propagandists trying to manipulate the public sphere. These are the news reporters you have to take with a certain grain of salt.

CANDICE:
That about wraps us up for this edition of Cracker Croakers.

COLTON:
In that case smarty-pants, I suppose we better say adieu. She's Candice!

CANDICE:
And, he's Colton!

CANDICE AND COLTON:
And, we invite you to join us again tomorrow for another entertaining edition of Cracker Croakers (Featuring Candice and Colton).

COLTON:
I truly believe some people will stop at nothing to state their opinion, no matter whether it is fake news or not. We're outta here.

FADE OUT